Recycling Is About You and Me
Today's guest blog is authored by NERC board member Chaz Miller. The original post can be accessed here.
Fifty years ago, the first Earth Day focused America’s attention on our polluted air and water and our rat-filled open burning dumps. Earth Day touched a nerve. At a time of increasing prosperity, Americans wondered why we didn’t live in a cleaner, healthier environment.
Earth Day lead to pioneering environmental legislation. The Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act were all signed into law within four years. They are fundamental to the cleaner environment we enjoy today.
As for those dumps, Congress turned its attention to trash with the enactment of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) in 1976. In spite of its title, that law was primarily about municipal trash and hazardous waste. Open burning…